Michelle’s OLFPZ

Just a plug (and a reminder for me) for our first Teaching and Learning with Technology Series Talk of the 2006-07 year, set for later this month (Sept 26):

Title: Clickers in the Classroom: An Interactive Panel

This September UBC is rolling out a new version of a teaching tool to the wider campus. Student Response Systems, commonly referred to as “clickers”, are small hand-held devices similar to television remote controls; they are purchased by students and used to answer questions during lectures. The instructor projects a question on the overhead screen and students use their clickers to answer the question. The technology allows the instructor to immediately show the range of students¹ answers in a bar graph.

A number of studies have indicated that this method is paticularly useful for gauging students’ understanding of concepts. This kind of tool enables instructors to demonstrably increase student engagement and improve the student experience, especially in large classes. Please join our panel of instructors for an interactive presentation on the pedagogical impacts of using clickers as a teaching and learning tool.

Panelists:
– Javed Iqbal, Director, Cooperative Education Science Co-op Programs
– Sara Harris, Instructor, Earth and Ocean Sciences
– Geoffrey Herring, Professor, Chemistry
– Marina Milner-Bolotin, Instructor, Skylight and Physics and Astronomy

When: Tuesday, September 26, 1:00-3:30pm

Where: Telestudios, 2329 West Mall (University Services Building), Rm #0110, Lower Level

Register: http://tag.ubc.ca/programs/series-detail.php?series_id=167

My colleague Marina Milner-Bolotin from the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Faculty of Science’s Skylight (Science Centre for Learning and Teeaching) pointed me in the direction of a few exciting projects that I think have wide applicability.  Both have to do with effective teaching techniques for large classes.

Local Resource:  eTLC

Skylight, the learning and teaching research arm of UBC’s Faculty of Science, is sponsoring a project that focuses on the particular challenges of teaching large classes.

eTLC provides, resources (research summaries, practical strategies, multimedia, etc.) and a set of community tools for faculty who teach large classes.  Grounded in Chickering & Gamson’s 7 principles, the site focuses on three areas of good practice.  In their words, these are:

1. Resources to enhance interaction and cooperation among students
2. Resources to enhance active learning in large classes
3. Resources to promote feedback between students and instructors

All and all, and excellent starting point for those new to teaching, particularly new to teaching large courses!

Clicker Resource from U of Toronto:

Clickers (aka, personal or student or audience response systems) have been used for several years at UBC, particularly in introductory science courses.  With the advent of the more portable and functional (feature-rich) RF clicker systems, this effort is widening further this fall. 

Information on clickers for UBC people can be found at http://www.elearning.ubc.ca/clickers). 

Like any tool, the value is not in the technology, but how the using the technology can further learning and teaching goals.  I’m not posting anything extraordinary by stating that one has to ask good questions to take full advantage of the system.  Indeed, the timing, sequence, etc. are all important…

Marina’s pointer to an effort led by David Harrison of the University of Toronto is particularly timely for me, as I am coming up to speed further on this in-class technology:

The Canadian In-Class Question Database (CINQ-DB)

http://cinqdb.physics.utoronto.ca/

From their Web site:

“A rapidly increasing number of classes, especially large classes, are using In-Class Questions. Finding suitable questions up to now has involved a few books, web sites, and informal contacts among educators. The intention of the Canadian In-Class Question Database (CINQ-DB) is to provide a one-stop shopping repository of questions. Although we call the repository Canadian questions are from teachers from a number of different countries.

Although this web site is hosted by the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto, it includes questions from a variety of fields at a variety of levels.“

The nice thing is that the database is not only compiling questions, but is looking to have information on how the questions are used (see http://cinqdb.physics.utoronto.ca/information/submitting/).

Thanks for the pointers, Marina!